Obesity and other metabolic related disorders affect millions of patients, and the number of patients suffering from such disorders has increased in recent years. Morbid obesity is often considered a serious and potentially life threatening disorder, as it may lead to diabetes, hypertension and other serious medical conditions. Since all of these disorders are typically related to the digestive processes, treatment methods often involve interrupting the normal digestive process to reduce the absorption of food particles passing from the stomach through the gastrointestinal system. Studies have also shown that reducing intestinal contact with gastric chyme, which may influence the secretion of certain hormones such as ghrelin which may stimulate hunger, may also be a viable treatment for obesity and its associated medical conditions. Although bariatric surgical procedures, such as the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and gastric sleeve resection, have proven beneficial, these procedures are highly invasive and typically involve removal of portions of the stomach, stapling or suturing, which generally result in permanent irreversible changes to the patient's digestive tract and carry a substantial risk of surgical complications or death.
Although more recently, endoscopic procedures have been developed to deliver less invasive therapies, such as the gastric bypass sleeve, into the a patient's gastrointestinal system, anchoring of such devices has proven difficult as the stomach and gastrointestinal tract is fairly flexible and may contort significantly during digestion. Additionally, the harsh digestive environment within the stomach can tend to break down foreign objects, such as an anchoring device, when placed in the stomach for any length of time. The unique anatomy of the stomach also presents challenges in anchoring a treatment device as devices large enough to resist passage from the stomach through the gastrointestinal tract may block the passage of nutrients and food particles through the digestive system, while devices small enough to allow passage of food and nutrients are often passed through the digestive system. Due to these difficulties in anchoring treatment devices in the stomach, many procedures still rely on invasive techniques, such as suturing or penetrating tissues.
In light of the above, it would be beneficial to provide improved devices, systems and methods for anchoring treatment, sensing and/or monitoring devices, and in particular anchoring of such devices in a stomach of a patient for use in treatment of obesity and other metabolic related disorders. It would be desirable to provide a device and method for anchoring a treatment and/or sensing device in a gastrointestinal tract or stomach of a patient that does not require suturing, stapling, or resection of tissue, while allowing the passage of nutrients and food particles through the digestive system. It would also be beneficial to provide systems and methods of treatment that allow for treatment of metabolic disorders by limiting intestinal contact with stomach chyme and stomach secretions thereby influencing secretion of certain hormones, both of which contribute to metabolic disorders including diabetes and obesity. It would be further beneficial to provide systems and methods that allow for passage of such devices through the gastrointestinal tract after treatment monitoring is complete. It is further desirable that such devices and methods are robust enough to withstand the harsh environment of the stomach while providing adequate anchoring in the unique morphology of the stomach.